WALTER CRONXITE, our veteran political correspondent, reports on an unusual occurance for Croydon: the local Liberal Democrats getting ahead of the game
Poll position: Richard Howard looking to be the LibDems’ candidate for Croydon Mayor
While Councillor Rowenna Davis twiddles her thumbs and waits patiently for the Labour Party “machine” to crank into action to choose a candidate to stand against Croydon’s Tory Mayor Jason Perry in May 2026, the local Liberal Democrats have actually managed to get into first gear, announcing their selection process.
Richard Howard, the former Army Major who served in the bomb disposal squad on the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan, and who was the party’s parliamentary candidate in Croydon South at the General Election earlier this year, is the short-priced favourite to get the nod of approval from the local membership. Not least because Howard could be taking part in the political equivalent of a walkover.
The Liberal Democrats’ national party website announced the vacancy over the weekend. Given the outbreak of bitter nastiness over the selection of their parliamentary candidate for Sutton and Cheam, as reported by the Torygraph, Mail and, most recently, Private Eye, it seems the LibDems are trying to be particularly scrupulous over future selection processes.
One in the Eye: Sutton LibDems’ new MP, ‘Lucky’ Luke Taylor, has caused a lasting controversy
“The local party executive of Croydon Liberal Democrats invite [sic] applications for selection as their Croydon Mayoral Candidate for the election in 2026,” the announcement begins.
“Applicants should send their election artwork, which should be maximum one side of A4, and not contain any endorsements from third parties, to the Returning Officer…”, they say.
The deadline is 5pm on November 1.
“It is the responsibility of applicants to check that their applications have been received by the Returning Officer by the closing date,” which seems a bit harsh.
Contact details for the chair of the local party – “an impartial member”, as if! – are offered for potential applicants to get more information.
“Applicants must be able to fulfil the qualification criteria to stand for election in Croydon, in time for the close of nominations.”
Basically, as with all local council elections, candidates for Croydon Mayor need to be a British, or Irish, or Commonwealth or even a EU citizen (with “retained rights”), and need to be a registered voter in the borough or own property or a business based in the borough, or have had Croydon as their main or only placed of work for the 12 months prior to the election.
Back in 2022, Howard impressed many neutrals when he stood in Croydon’s first mayoral election, finishing third behind Perry and Labour’s Val Shawcross. Howard polled almost 10,000 votes across the whole borough, 10.4% of those cast.
That was the weekend of the never-ending poll count, when the LibDems also won their first council seat in Croydon this century, with Claire Bonham in Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood.
And this is where the relatively small Croydon LibDems begin to run out of viable candidates.
Credible: Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood councillor Claire Bonham
Bonham is not thought to be considering seeking selection to run as Mayor.
Instead, she is looking to embed the LibDems in her ward in the north of the borough, while also seeking the possibility of a winnable parliamentary seat. Bonham stood in Croydon North in 2019 and in Streatham and Croydon North this year, where she was out-polled by the Greens and Tories as well as Steve Reed’s Labour juggernaut with its 15,000 majority.
Another possible runner would be perennial election candidate Andrew Pelling, a former Tory MP and Labour councillor. Pelling stood for Mayor in 2022 as an independent, but last year joined the Liberal Democrats, in part after being impressed by Howard at hustings the year before.
Pelling, like Bonham, was a disappointed General Election candidate in July. It is understood that Pelling does not consider that he is well enough established in the local party to be able to supplant Howard as candidate, and is also keen to provide his local political experience to his former election rival’s 2026 campaign.
The very notion that the Liberal Democrats might actually have a candidate in place before the end of this year is, by their previous almost subterranean standards, quite a turnround.
Milking it: £82,000 per year Tory Mayor Jason Perry
With Perry milking his incumbency for all its worth, with a £200,000 per year council propaganda department rolling out press releases for him every week, any challengers for Mayor need as much time as possible to raise their profile and establish themselves with the voters.
And Labour – still struggling to overcome the severe reputational damage of the Tony Newman years – have given all their rivals a massive head start.
Davis, councillor for Waddon ward since 2022, stood down as the chair of the council’s scrutiny committee last month to ready herself for a candidature contest. The expectation among Labour’s local leadership was that such a selection might begin once the party conferences were over.
Weeks later, and nothing…
Croydon Labour are still not regarded as trustworthy enough to run a bath, so selections remain in the hands of London region officials.
“We’ve been told not to expect anything before the start of the year,” a Labour official told Inside Croydon. They didn’t specify whether the year in question might be 2025 or 2026…
Read more: Mayor Perry will hike Council Tax by more than 5% if allowed
Read more: ‘I don’t think it’s helpful you ask questions like this’ squirms MP
Read more: #TheLabourFiles: MP Reed, Evans and the Croydon connection
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
